Verizon leads top wireless carriers in bill size, at $148 a month

T-Mobile's $120 average bill is cheap by comparison.

Verizon Wireless has the largest average bill size among the four major mobile carriers in the US, while T-Mobile has the lowest, according to a survey released yesterday by research firm Cowen and Company.

The numbers reflect postpaid subscribers and include all taxes and fees. They include both single users and family plan customers. Across the industry, 68.5 percent of postpaid respondents were paying for family plans, with 26.1 percent on individual plans and 5.4 percent on corporate plans. Verizon had the most family and corporate plans, with 72.3 percent of respondents paying for family plans and 7.0 percent on corporate plans. The report did not break out the average individual bill size by carrier.

This was the second time Cowen performed the quarterly survey. It uses a random sample, so the respondents are different each time. In Q3 2013, Verizon also led with an average bill size of $153, and T-Mobile had the lowest with $133. AT&T and Sprint switched places, with AT&T averaging $147 in Q3 2013 and Sprint averaging $143.

A Verizon spokesperson declined to comment on the findings but said, "we do offer many options at different price points for customers so they can find the plan that suits them best."

Cowen tried to determine what percentage of customers plan to leave their wireless carriers, but the numbers fluctuated wildly between Q3 and Q4 with no explanation, making it hard to know whether to take the answers seriously. When asked if they plan to switch from their current providers, 17 percent of Verizon postpaid customers said yes in Q4, up from 15.7 percent the previous quarter. 15.4 percent of T-Mobile customers said yes to the same question, down from 42.9 percent the previous quarter. 31.4 percent of Sprint customers said they plan to switch, down from 41.7 percent the previous quarter. 11.1 percent of AT&T customers said they plan to switch, down from 31.6 percent the previous quarter.

Actual customer turnover is more consistent over time. UBS research found that in 2012, Verizon lost 0.91 percent of its customers each month, while AT&T lost 1.08 percent, Sprint lost 2.02 percent, and T-Mobile lost 2.35 percent, according to a Wall Street Journal article in July 2013. T-Mobile may end up stealing more customers from its rivals than usual, however, because of its new offer to pay off the early termination fees of customers who switch and turn in their old phones.

The carriers' various perceived strengths came through when Cowen and Company asked customers why they chose their service provider. "The top responses for why respondents chose their current carrier for AT&T were network coverage and quality," the Cowen report said. "Similar to last [quarter], the top reasons for choosing Sprint was for the unlimited data plan and better price, for T-Mobile was better price and unlimited data plan, and for Verizon was network coverage and network quality."

Most customers who plan on switching want to do so to get a lower price, Cowen's survey found.

138 Reader Comments

I'll echo the posts that mention "apples to apples" comparisons. I think the important thing is to shop around and compare plans because the market is different than it was a year or two ago and so much of it is finding a plan that only charges you for the things you personally need/use.

Example: I was paying Sprint about $160/mo for two smartphones (with their initial subsidies), 1500 weekday landline minutes shared between them, free nights, free weekends, free calls to/from cell phones on any carrier, free roaming on Verizon, unlimited text, and unlimited data. For a while, this was equal or less than I would pay for a similar plan with limited data on another carrier but I had no data cap. Never cared that the high speed data rarely broke 5mbps since I don't really need my cell phone to download as fast as my home cable connection.

We never used anywhere near that number of minutes so I recently switched us over to two T-Mobile prepaid SIMs at the $30/mo rate for 100 minutes each, unlimited text, and 5GB data at full speed (with a throttle down to EDGE if we go over 5GB in a month). This works much better for us since a) we live in the city and get service from pretty much all providers, b) we don't use many minutes, and c) we use WiFi at work and at home so it is unlikely that we would go over 5GB. At least if one of us does, we will still be able to look things up or sync email, just not stream HD video or whatever for the last few days of the month.

If you don't have coverage, this is a nonstarter and TMo's network isn't as large as Sprint or the bastard children of the Bells. If you talk on the phone all the time, you would have to buy a more expensive plan. If you truly need 8 or 10 GB of data every month, the throttle after 5GB is a dealbreaker.

But, since it worked for us (and the Nexus 5 knocked the cost of a high end phone nearly in half), we were able to ditch the subsidies, still not pay a fortune up front, and drop total cost from $4240/2yrs for service and two subsidized phones to $2140/2yr for service and two full priced phones. That's only because we are no longer paying for things we don't need (hundreds of unused minutes and gigabytes of unused data).

It's just important to compare all of the options and see what's available based on usage and coverage.

If the T-Mobile rep I talked to the other day was telling the truth, then prepaid is 2nd class citizen, first to be bumped from crowded towers... I'm not convinced she wasn't full of it though.

...

I've heard the same thing from a T-Mobile rep. Though a 30-40% reduction in my monthly phone bill would be amazing......

Of course you'll hear the same.

Oddly enough, they never told me that to my face, after four years with a pre-paid card at T-Mobile. Probably because they knew I would rather change carrier on the spot rather than bend over after they've admitted to have tried to screw me over.

I am perfectly happy paying what i am with verizon... In the area i live in... VERIZON has the best coverage, FASTEST Internet even in highly populated area's and i get a 20% Discount with my job....

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR PEOPLE!

I also get a 20% discount, and it's still $180 for two with a 4GB data cap... I still get bumped down to 3G/2G every now and then on Verizon. Heck when I had the HTC Thunderbolt, I swear I was on 3G during the day, and LTE at night...

The accountants/villains at Sprint and AT&T are no doubt grinding their teeth that Verizon managed to charge/steal more than them.

Except that there is no evidence to support your statement. The article specifically stated that these numbers are combinations of both single user plans and family plans, and that Verizon had a higher percentage of family plans than the other three. Without breaking out the per-user price, these numbers actually tell us very little.

I don't know why more people don't get on prepaid plans. T-Mobile's prepaid gives you 100 min, 5GB of 4G data, and unlimited text for $30 a month. Virgin Mobile (Spring MVNO) gives you 300 min, 2.5GB of 4G and unlimited text for $35.

Yes the phones are more expensive, but you end up paying for it either way with monthly prices that are like 4 times more.

If the T-Mobile rep I talked to the other day was telling the truth, then prepaid is 2nd class citizen, first to be bumped from crowded towers... I'm not convinced she wasn't full of it though.

I'm surprised Verizon's average is not higher, my wife and I share 4GB of data at $170/month, contract just ended and we're looking to get comparable on T-Mobile for $109/month.

They're full of it, I was in downtown Miami for newyears and the towers were seriously overcrowded to the point where data was worthless and calls weren't reliably going out, I'm on Sprint and my wife is on Virgin Mobile, she got data back before I did.

As someone living in the UK and using 3, those prices sound insane.Granted, I have always bought my smartphones outright and have never gone postpaid, but the most I've ever paid was like 10 GBP a month (I usually top up 10 quid every couple of months and get a 5 quid data add-on for 1 GB to use within 30 days).

I would like to see the average number per phone line. That would be more telling as often you see people on family plans with companies like Verizon because of the significant savings over them being on individual plans. The high family plan ratio for Verizon may be what makes their number significantly higher rather than just higher.

All I know is that in about a month, I'll be saving about $50/month after switching to a better plan (more data) on T-Mobile from Verizon. That's comparing my Verizon bill with work discount to T-Mobile without a work discount. I will be saving a bit more because I also can get a discount at T-Mobile.

It's just the wife and I. Taking phone subsidies (had we stayed) against full price and one line's ETF into account, we won't start really saving money for about six months. But six months against two years or so sounds good to me.

And before someone mentions it, we won't qualify for T-Mobile to buy our ETF because the phones we want aren't sold directly by T-Mobile.

As someone living in the UK and using 3, those prices sound insane.Granted, I have always bought my smartphones outright and have never gone postpaid, but the most I've ever paid was like 10 GBP a month (I usually top up 10 quid every couple of months and get a 5 quid data add-on for 1 GB to use within 30 days).

From a recent report:

* EU consumers pay less per month than U.S. consumers for mobile wireless services, but U.S. consumers use five times more voice minutes and twice as much data.

* Growth in investment in the U.S. is translating into faster data connection speeds: U.S. speeds are now 75 percent faster than the EU average, and the gap is expected to grow.

* The U.S. is deploying LTE at a much faster pace than the EU; by YE 2013, 19 percent of U.S. connections will be on LTE networks compared to less than two percent in the EU.

So we use more, pay more, and get more. Do I personally think it's worth it? No, not at all which is why my wife is on a prepaid MVNO and paying $25/month and I don't have a personal cellphone, only a work phone.

OK so heres a quaestion rolling around inside my brain. I'm on contract right now paying 260 a month for 4 lines on a 6 GB / per month family plan, about to reduce to 2 lines, both of which are on contract but I am thinking I'm going to pay the ETF to allow me get off a fixed contract, I hate the price I'm paying AT&T but want to get the cost down. I like the coverage I get with AT&T especially out of town which is a big thing in the summer for me, so what are the thoughts on which way to reduce costs?

I don't know why more people don't get on prepaid plans. T-Mobile's prepaid gives you 100 min, 5GB of 4G data, and unlimited text for $30 a month. Virgin Mobile (Spring MVNO) gives you 300 min, 2.5GB of 4G and unlimited text for $35.

Yes the phones are more expensive, but you end up paying for it either way with monthly prices that are like 4 times more.

3 words - the service sucks.

No, it doesn't. Or, more accurately, it depends where you live. If you live in a college town or in/near large cities, T-Mobile is great. Though I don't have high data speeds at home or where my parents live, I'm usually on Wifi and if I'm not I can live with EDGE speeds most of the time. And I have found ways around the lack of coverage in some areas, i.e. I now subscribe to Google Play All Access Music and load my phone up with albums for when I know I won't have data coverage, and even with that additional $10/month I'm still paying less than half what I used to pay Verizon.

It all depends on your needs and the area you live in. For some people T-Mobile just isn't an option, but for many people such as myself it's an amazing deal.

PS regarding prepaid roaming, at least for T-Mobile voice roaming is available, just not data roaming. Again, it's something I can live with considering the significant cost savings.

As someone living in the UK and using 3, those prices sound insane.Granted, I have always bought my smartphones outright and have never gone postpaid, but the most I've ever paid was like 10 GBP a month (I usually top up 10 quid every couple of months and get a 5 quid data add-on for 1 GB to use within 30 days).

From a recent report:

* EU consumers pay less per month than U.S. consumers for mobile wireless services, but U.S. consumers use five times more voice minutes and twice as much data.

* Growth in investment in the U.S. is translating into faster data connection speeds: U.S. speeds are now 75 percent faster than the EU average, and the gap is expected to grow.

* The U.S. is deploying LTE at a much faster pace than the EU; by YE 2013, 19 percent of U.S. connections will be on LTE networks compared to less than two percent in the EU.

So we use more, pay more, and get more. Do I personally think it's worth it? No, not at all which is why my wife is on a prepaid MVNO and paying $25/month and I don't have a personal cellphone, only a work phone.

Do you have a reference, or at least a keyword I can use to search for it? I would like to read that report. I am not saying I doubt you, but I am sure the report has a lot of other interesting information that I would like to read.

OK so heres a quaestion rolling around inside my brain. I'm on contract right now paying 260 a month for 4 lines on a 6 GB / per month family plan, about to reduce to 2 lines, both of which are on contract but I am thinking I'm going to pay the ETF to allow me get off a fixed contract, I hate the price I'm paying AT&T but want to get the cost down. I like the coverage I get with AT&T especially out of town which is a big thing in the summer for me, so what are the thoughts on which way to reduce costs?

Switch to Straight Talk, $45/month for unlimited talk/text and 2.5 GB of data, you can bring your own AT&T device. There are even discounts for buying multiple months once you're satisfied with their service ($41.25/month for a years service and that's list, there are sites that can get it cheaper). They're the only AT&T MVNO that I've heard mostly good things about.

As someone living in the UK and using 3, those prices sound insane.Granted, I have always bought my smartphones outright and have never gone postpaid, but the most I've ever paid was like 10 GBP a month (I usually top up 10 quid every couple of months and get a 5 quid data add-on for 1 GB to use within 30 days).

From a recent report:

* EU consumers pay less per month than U.S. consumers for mobile wireless services, but U.S. consumers use five times more voice minutes and twice as much data.

* Growth in investment in the U.S. is translating into faster data connection speeds: U.S. speeds are now 75 percent faster than the EU average, and the gap is expected to grow.

* The U.S. is deploying LTE at a much faster pace than the EU; by YE 2013, 19 percent of U.S. connections will be on LTE networks compared to less than two percent in the EU.

So we use more, pay more, and get more. Do I personally think it's worth it? No, not at all which is why my wife is on a prepaid MVNO and paying $25/month and I don't have a personal cellphone, only a work phone.

Do you have a reference, or at least a keyword I can use to search for it? I would like to read that report. I am not saying I doubt you, but I am sure the report has a lot of other interesting information that I would like to read.

OK so heres a quaestion rolling around inside my brain. I'm on contract right now paying 260 a month for 4 lines on a 6 GB / per month family plan, about to reduce to 2 lines, both of which are on contract but I am thinking I'm going to pay the ETF to allow me get off a fixed contract, I hate the price I'm paying AT&T but want to get the cost down. I like the coverage I get with AT&T especially out of town which is a big thing in the summer for me, so what are the thoughts on which way to reduce costs?

Switch to Straight Talk, $45/month for unlimited talk/text and 2.5 GB of data, you can bring your own AT&T device. There are even discounts for buying multiple months once you're satisfied with their service ($41.25/month for a years service and that's list, there are sites that can get it cheaper). They're the only AT&T MVNO that I've heard mostly good things about.

I've been on the $50 Boost plan, $25 Virgin Mobile plan, and the $30 T-Mobile plan. About a month ago I got on my brothers' T-Mobile family plan. I should have done that years ago. Here's the breakdown-They were paying 160 for three lines--basic 500, no add-ons-basic 500, insurance-2.5 gigs, insurance, tethering (which I think is an error)

I already had a Note 2 I'd bought used for the prepaid plan. We added me on as an unlimited $30 line, got my 15% military discount added to the whole plan, and now pay 150. That's ten less with an additional person! My brothers should pay me ten bucks a month!

Wireless carriers are continuing to push customers to smartphones and therefore data plans. The cost of the average plan consists of data, not voice or text. Companies like Republic Wireless are demonstrating that these prices are outrageous and can be substantially cheaper. One can hope there will be enough consumer demand to change mainstream wireless carrier business models.

Absolutely agree. That's why I switched from Verizon to Republic Wireless last month. I even paid the ETF and bought the moto X ($500 total). Even with these "initiation fees" I still plan on saving money after month 5.

We don't all get ripped off. I switched to one of the MVNO's that run on Verizons network (Page Plus Cellular). My total bill for the year was less than $50 (voice and text), less than 2 months of Verizon service ($30 per month). They also have plans with data, but since I have a feature phone I just got a voice and text plan.

Another happy Ting customer here. Had a $70 T-Mobile family plan with three dumbphones, 700 shared minutes and unlimited texts for one phone. Since switching to Ting, our bill has ranged from $48 to $58 for 3 lines sharing minutes, text messaging and data. We now have smartphones, more services and pay less than we did at TMo. Also, Ting's customer service is fantastic.

That being said, if you use a lot of data or live in an area with spotty Sprint coverage Ting would not be the best choice.

I never understand why when people discuss the alternatives to high-priced postpaid Verizon and AT&T plans, they only mention T-Mobile, and then proceed to complain about coverage and use that as justification for not switching. Why not just use AT&T prepaid then....great coverage, LTE, prices nearly as low as T-Mobile. Straight Talk, 2.5 GB, $45/month. I see just about no reason to use Verizon over that option. If you want to stick with the AT&T brand, GoPhone for $60/month. T-Mobile's $30 plan is not the only alternative.

Wireless carriers are continuing to push customers to smartphones and therefore data plans. The cost of the average plan consists of data, not voice or text. Companies like Republic Wireless are demonstrating that these prices are outrageous and can be substantially cheaper. One can hope there will be enough consumer demand to change mainstream wireless carrier business models.

Absolutely agree. That's why I switched from Verizon to Republic Wireless last month. I even paid the ETF and bought the moto X ($500 total). Even with these "initiation fees" I still plan on saving money after month 5.

Old Verizon Bill: $107Republic Wireless Bill: $40.

You do the math.

Did you buy a nonfunctional Motorola phone to get the $100 Jellybean rebate? You can find plenty of qualifying models on ebay for $10-15 (I've got a Droid x2 from work I'm going to use).

It seems like a mediocre way to measure it. I've had a cell phone for about 13 years now and I've always been on a plan with a family member. Every time I look at prices and get irritated by how high they are I notice how bad it would be to just have one phone and I feel bad for people who don't have someone to be on a plan with.

But I also know a lot of people (including married couples) who have one plan per person. So maybe what I do is weird.

I have a love hate relationship with this. On one hand $140 bucks a month is pretty damned expensive for phone service. But then I look at what you can do now vs. a few years back and it is merely expensive, not astronomical. To me the biggest problems are the added costs for tethering and/or enough data. If those were to come down, I could see not really having home internet at all and just using your mobile.

I never understand why when people discuss the alternatives to high-priced postpaid Verizon and AT&T plans, they only mention T-Mobile, and then proceed to complain about coverage and use that as justification for not switching. Why not just use AT&T prepaid then....great coverage, LTE, prices nearly as low as T-Mobile. Straight Talk, 2.5 GB, $45/month. I see just about no reason to use Verizon over that option. If you want to stick with the AT&T brand, GoPhone for $60/month. T-Mobile's $30 plan is not the only alternative.

From everything I've read, ST's customer service is shit and there are plenty of horror stories about them over on the Howard Forums.

When I went looking for a new carrier after finally having had enough of Sprint's lousy local network, I considered Straight Talk.

I considered them to the point of looking up how to fool their online service configurator into thinking that I lived in an area with no T-Mobile or Sprint service (that's not far from the truth ) in order to get a device on the Verizon or ATT networks.

Then I found all the horror stories of data throttling not being lifted when a new plan month started, Foreign CSR's not knowing how to troubleshoot issues and not speaking clear English, billing problems, etc.

In the end I bought a Nexus 5 and went with GoPhone.I'm glad I did, because initially I couldn't get LTE working right, and it took a call to ATT customer service to fix the problem.Their CS people were Americans and the level 1 lady immediately put me through to a level 2 tech after I told her about the problem.

The problem was caused by the sim originally being activated in another phone.The solution was that the IMEI needed to be entered into their equipment database in order to get LTE.After they did that, LTE works normally.

Somehow I doubt If I'd had the same issue with Straight Talk, the process would have gone as smoothly.

"Verizon had the most family and corporate plans, with 72.3 percent of respondents paying for family plans "

Wonder how much this bit from the article effects the average. Average cost per line might be a far more useful measure than cost per bill.

That's the kicker for me. I'm on a Verizon family plan with my daughter, and my mom, and the avg cost across all three phones is about 60/month. 2 phones are iPhones (1 unlimited data, the other has 4GB), and the other is a dumbphone (what can I say my mom doesn't need or want more than that).

Yes we pay a little bit more on the total bill, but I've never had Verizon coverage fail for anywhere I've had to travel to, and that is worth paying a little bit more for. When I was on TMO, I could be in the middle of town, and no service, or walk into a building and no service. It was horrible. And I won't use ATT for anything if I have a choice.

My girlfriend and her kids(young adults really) are on Sprint, and constantly have connection issues, or run into roaming areas. Although when it works it works quite well, but they frequently have dropped calls, or network errors, or other issues.

In my opinion it doesn't really matter which carrier you go with, they're all equally expensive, as long as you're happy with their service (customer support issues notwithstanding). That doesn't mean that the wireless phone issue doesn't need to be addressed, but without regulation of some sort I wouldn't hold my breath for that happening.

I still find it amazing thy get away with charging this much. I am on a corporate plan and my company pays less than $70 per month which includes unlimited LTE data. The data portion of the plan is $25/month.

Jeez… I pay about $50 a month for unlimited texts, calls and MMS with 5GB data. Granted, I bought my phone unsubsidized, so that probably halves the monthly cost due to no downpayment, but still…

And I live in Norway, where average yearly salary for industrial workers is almost $60,000 before tax…

What percentage of your income do you keep after taxes? I don't know much about Norway. It makes sense that we pay somewhat more in the US, just due to the size of the country and population density, but I'm guessing we do overpay due to lack of good competition or lack of good regulation.

Most people pay somewhere between 30 and 40 % income tax. And yeah, I guess maintaining a network is harder in the US due to distances. Then again, there are mountains literally everywhere here in Norway There is some heavy regulation of competition going on here as well as you mentioned.

Oh, and I forgot to mention this in my previous post; I can end my contract at any time without extra costs. This is normal (though you'd still have to pay for the phone if you're on downpayment).

That's not bad, our tax rate is comparable or higher I believe, gets fuzzy with the progressive federal income tax combined with state income tax, sales tax, fica....

This survey is pretty useless without providing average cost per person.

I'm glad someone pointed this out. The survey mixes together individual and family plans and then says that Verizon has a higher percentage of family plans, so of course the average cost for Verizon will be higher.

My guess is that the average cost per person would be highest for Verizon, too, but isn't the point of a survey to not have to guess?

I regularly use between 10 and 15 gigs on just my phone. That's all LTE. I shudder to think about what that'd cost me if I didn't have unlimited data.

I hardly use the minutes or texts; they're there for clients because I also use my phone for business (which is most of my data use as well). It's a are month I break 100 minutes or 20 text messages, but on those months I often go well over the lower limits. I did at one point have unlimited talk and text as well, but I only needed that for a couple of months and then I was just overpaying for no reason.

~$1800/year. While I appreciate the benefits of cell phones, that is $1800/year being spent on something that just several years ago relatively few of us had. Over time the average household has gone deeper into debt despite some basic items, like food getting relatively cheaper. Our cell phones are certainly not helping.

Food getting cheaper??? Where the hell do you live? Over the past 20 years I have seen food prices SKYROCKET!

When I got my first cell phone (about a decade ago), I chose Verizon largely due to price. They were noticeably cheaper than AT&T--as in $25/mo vs $35/mo for comparable plans--and basically the same price as Sprint and USCellular, but Verizon let me use my cellphone as a cellmodem with no additional fees or charges (and unlimited data), whereas the others charged an additional $5/mo for the privilege.

Obviously this is no longer the case. Though a difference of $7 out of $141 is a lot smaller difference. Even T-Mobile isn't as much cheaper than Verizon/Sprint used to be. I'm not sure whether to be more outraged by the prices, or the choice to cap the essentially unlimited resource (total bytes) rather than the actually constrained resource (bandwidth) while pretending that it somehow addresses the problem of limited bandwidth.

That's per bill, not per line. So if the average bill is 2 lines, then it's $75/mo. Still high, but not quite so ridiculous.

Still ridiculous. €165 with 23% VAT already included is what I pay for 4 lines, unlimited voice and texts, 10Gb shared LTE data that I share with 2 additional lines with reasonable overages, 15 days/year of free roaming across most of Europe, and 100Mbps FTTH, VOIP and IPTV.

This already includes such nicities as 7 day cloud DVR (every show from the past 7 days is available to watch at any time), watching TV for free away from home, etc.

Verizon has taken these numbers, or similar numbers, and bragged to their investors about them, and talked about plans to increase the average bill size.

What exactly are they supposed to tell their investors? "Hey guys, our plan is to make less money for you in the future. Thanks for flushing your money down the toilet with us!"

Every single company does this. There is no reason to single out Verizon.

They would attract a larger portion of the market if they're able to charge less. What they lose from charging more, they would make up in volume. The volume, however, creates other issues.

You might consider a basic course in economics, complete with discussions about expected profit maximization strategies.

Conventional wisdom is that in a monopolistic market — only one decent firm offering service in a market — the carrier has an incentive to charge much higher prices and turn away customers thereby. In a fully competitive market — many independent providers seeking your business — a provider maximizes his profit by lowering his price until the cost of capturing the last customer is equal to the cost of supporting that customer (plus maybe a penny). All this assumes ordinary economies of scale, lack of govt price-setting, etc.

Oligopolistic markets are midway but in the US, where for instance AT&T competes poorly in many geographies and others are reliant on use of the majors' networks, can be closer to a monopoly market. In that market, a $1 reduction in price might get a few more users but will reduce all the existing bills by $1, and net-net, profits are likely to fall.